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-	Confessions of an Ad-Man VII: Commercial ends up in the air instead of on the air

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There were mixed emotions around the room. Most of us were in stitches but the agency owner was not amused.

“Chrissake Williams” he screamed. “Are you trying to eighty-six this whole agency? I mean, doesn’t a regular pay-cheque appeal to you anymore?

His rant was interrupted by Sheila, our receptionist. “Hans is on the phone,” she said. Her face was scarlet.

“I’ll take it in my office,” Ken said calmly. “Hey, that’s a fast courier we have. We better keep him.”

We all listened outside Ken’s office. He didn’t seem to know or care that a public firing was a probable event in his immediate future. The walls were paper thin.

“Yeah, Hans. I know. I added that later. Some of our research showed that people were really worried about getting beaks and claws in their fried chicken. Hey man, we beat the Colonel getting to this one. He’ll be copying our ads. You watch.”

When he decided to break it to Hans that it was all a joke, he had to literally screech into the phone to be heard over the Germanic expletives that were so loud in the earpiece we could hear them through the walls.

We didn’t lose the account. Hans spanked us though. He cancelled about fifty thou in media bookings and a bunch of creative stuff we had already started working on. Then he let us back in.

But here’s the punch line. Two years later, the international Marketing Director of Hans’s company was none other than . . .you guessed it . . .Ken Williams.

Scott, the artist, and I were having a beer one night and reminiscing about the “Day of the Chicken.”

I vowed my undying love and respect for the man who had the kind of cajones that would let him pull a gag like that. Scott had a look of awe on his face. We hoisted our glasses to Ken.

Then Scott broke the reverent silence. “I bet Hans makes him wear the chicken suit at the football games.”

We had a few more laughs and a few more beers over that. By closing time we were raising our glasses and yelling “Ken Williams . . . Chicken Man.” We were still laughing as they ejected us from the bar.